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"PATRIOT" VERSION
The Patriot Wonder is a great way to fly
the colors! The elegantly curved ailerons
and elevator, as well as the nicely
rounded wingtips and fin tips give the
Patriot a style all of it's own.
At 26 ounces, this was our lightest
Wonder prototype. It was achieved by
using a very lightweight engine, a two
ounce fuel tank, a very light radio
system, and only two channels.
By going without a throttle, you save the weight of a servo and the linkage to the engine. The downside of this is that you
have to fly wide open all the time, and you can't control when and where the engine quits. The upside is the tremendous
glide! All of the Wonders glide well, but at this weight it's almost a floater.
Covering the "Patriot"
This is by far the most difficult Wonder version to cover. If you like how it looks however, it's definately worth the effort. You
will need the following materials to duplicate the Patriot color scheme:
White Supercoat Covering
- Entire airframe except blue field on
the wing.
Medium Blue Supercoat Covering
- Blue field on the wing, top
and bottom.
Black Supercoat Covering
- Front canopy piece.
Medium Blue SuperTrim
- Blue fields on fins.
Waco Red SuperTrim
- Red stripes on wing, stabilizer and
fins.Wing and fin leading edges.
1/4" Medium Blue and Red SuperStripe
- Stripes on fuselage.
Decal Sheet
- SIGDKM266D
The blue and white covering pieces for the wing must be joined before you actually iron them onto the structure. Cut them
out carefully, then overlap the blue onto the white about 1/4" over a glass plate. Iron just the seam with the edge of your
iron, which should be set at a fairly low temperature. Lift the joined pieces from the glass and iron it onto the wing like it was
one piece of covering material. The rest of the model is covered with white supercoat.
Now for the fun part! Cut 1-5/8" wide stripes of red trim material and adhere them over the white as shown in the photo. The
center red stripe on the wing will have to be cut to leave room for the black "Wonder" decal. It would probably be best to do
this before you apply it to the model. Sig SuperTrim Self-Adhesive Trim Sheets come with complete instructions on how to
apply it using the wet method (soapy water). You will also need to cut some blue and red trim pieces for each of the fins.
Use the pattern on the plans to cut the fin trim pieces.
Radio Installation
All of the radio gear in the Patriot
Wonder is installed as far forward as
possible to help with balance. The servo
that you see in the fuselage (S133
micro) is for the elevator- there is no
throttle. The 250 maH battery is under
the fuel tank.
Engine Installation
The Cox Tee Dee .09 shown installed on the Patriot is the smallest engine we recommend for the Wonder. That doesn't
mean it's a slouch. At this light weight, the performance difference between the Patriot and the Standard Wonder (with
a .19) is not as great as you might think. One caution- without a muffler the .09 is pretty loud, so stay away from noise-
sensitive flying sites.
Notice that for balance reasons the engine is placed well forward on the mounts. A small length of fuel tubing has been
forced over the needle valve to prevent air leaks around the threads.